3 Basic Principles of Successful Website Design

There are certain basic principles that one needs to follow while undertaking any process, this fact remains true for website designing as well. Adherence to these principles while designing a website, results in a website that successfully achieves the objective of the website owner. On the other hand, in case the principles are not adhered to, the website ends up being a failure, more often than not.

Let’s take a look at three of these principles:

Understand the Objective and the Platform

As a designer, you are going to create the website for somebody, lets call this person your client. Now, your client will have a certain purpose behind the website. You need to understand this purpose and what is it exactly that the client wants from the website. It’s only after you are well aware of the objectives of your client that you will be able to conceptualize the design and breathe life into it. What’s more, you will be able identify the designing platform that you need to use for crafting a successful website, only when you know the objective in detail.

Another aspect to keep in mind is that you need to identify and use only the design platform that you are comfortable with. Know its ins and outs well in order to make best use of it. Don’t choose something that you have very little idea of using, as it might just lead you to making the kind of mistakes that should well be avoided.

Never complicate

Keeping things simple takes a whole lot of effort. But, you must make every effort to ensure that the design of the website is not complex. This is because complexity leads to confusion and a confused website visitor means an increase in bounce rate for the website. When a website visitor comes to your website, he must be able to understand what the website design is trying to convey without making any efforts in this regard. This tempts them to take time out to go through the website, which improves the website’s chances of persuading them to take a positive call to action.

On the other hand, if the design of the website is complicated and full of design elements that confuse visitors, website visitor’s won’t be able to understand what the design is thring to say. As can be imagined, this is never good news for any website.

Aim for Seamless Navigation

Everything in a website hinges on its navigation and is the key to its success. As a designer, you need to put yourself in the shoes of your user and think the way he is going to think, when they land up on your website. The navigation must be clearly positioned and labeled, so that the user knows what to do and where to go when he lands on the website. Your design shouldn’t make him think. All design elements that you use, should make navigation simple and easy to understand. If you make things difficult, say goodbye to any chance of website success.
These are just three of the many principles that if followed will help you design a successful website. But, it’s also important to note that website designing is all about not stopping the process of learning. Even if you are an experienced hand at designing a website, you still should not stop looking for new and better tips that will help you improve the design of your website.

Alan Hall

Alan Hall works for PLAVEBAPPS, a Custom Website Development Company Located in Los Angeles. He likes to take a leisurely stroll in his neighborhood park or go for nature walks. He also likes to write as a hobby and shares his write-ups on different websites, where like-minded people can read them.

A very precise and accurate article
Our website being designed by a hired designer, I know how difficult to get him to produce something that even looks like what I have visualized. Most of the time I get to compromize on my ideas and settle for his own ideas (which he thinks is the best for me)
I wish he could have a read at this and get something down his brains about what a customer really wants!
Who knows, maybe I would learn some of it to design on my own Thanks for those tips. keep writing!

Web Designing is changing at a rapid pace, once we used photoshop and frontpage, now we have a list of other things that command attention.
The option is to specialize. You need to constantly evolve yourself, and not limit your expertise to just one field. Although it may seem scary, but specializing is not an option for web designers.